Greek Dice Oracle

The Hyperborean

O igri

Emulate the ancient Greeks by casting virtual astragaloi and divining the will of the gods. Astragaloi are sheep knucklebones, having four sides with the values 1, 3, 4, and 6. Rolling five of these at a time yields a unique combination that corresponds to a particular oracle. Ask your question, roll the bones and receive the wisdom of the gods.

The English translations of the oracular text are provided by Fritz Graf’s “Rolling the Dice for an Answer,” as is the practice of this divination technique (2005). Pausanias, in his “Description of Greece,” written in the second century AD, encountered a similar oracle at a statue of Heracles:

“On descending from Bura towards the sea you come to a river called Buraicus, and to a small Heracles in a cave. He too is surnamed Buraicus, and here one can divine by means of a tablet and dice. He who inquires of the god offers up a prayer in front of the image, and after the prayer he takes four dice, a plentiful supply of which are placed by Heracles, and throws them upon the table. For every figure made by the dice there is an explanation expressly written on the tablet.”

While this app represents no statue of a god (who may have often been Hermes acting as messenger for Apollo, who held domain over divination) a virtual table and set of astragaloi are provided. Simply swipe to roll and share in an experience many Greeks experienced millennia ago.

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Initial production release